Published Paper Details:

In a developing country like India reach of safe fuel for cooking is a constant problem particularly for socio-economically weaker sections of society. Intensity of this problem is very high in rural areas in comparison to urban areas. This led to high dependency of rural households on unsafe fuel for cooking such as fuel wood, cow dung cake and coal. The responsibility of collecting fuel wood from village commons and nearby forest areas lies on women and children. This process takes a lot of their energy and time. The smoke from these unsafe fuels emit a lot of harmful gases such as Co2, Co, So2, hydrocarbon and solid particulate matter, which adversely affect the health of women causing many health problems like irritation in eyes, cataract, skin infections, upper respiratory infection, burns etc. This also led to atmospheric pollution and increase in green house gases. NCR lies at the core of India, where a majority of households except Delhi all other sub-regions use unsafe fuel for cooking both in rural and urban areas. Scheduled caste households are at great disadvantage (both in rural and urban areas) in comparison to non-scheduled households in terms of safe fuel for cooking. Availability, socio-economic conditions and urbanisation are major factors deciding the type of fuel used for cooking.